PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday stopped the provincial government from taking `any adverse action` against a revenue official, who voluntarily returned Rs5 million `booty` to the l
A bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain ordered the establishment department to submit within a fortnight the reply to the petition of tehsildar Fazal Hussain against his possible termination by the government.

In the petition, the revenue official claimed that he had paid Rs5 million to NAB under duress and coercion and on the basis of voluntaryreturnunderthe AccountabilityBureau Ordinance 1999 he could not be removed from service.

He claimed the establishment department had begun proceedings for terminating him from service.

Lawyer for the petitioner Shahnawaz Khan said his client was taken into custody by the NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Dec 2013 and had charged him of inflicting loss to the exchequer as he had not deposited the money received by him on account of capital value tax on transfer of different properties.

He said under Section 25 of the Accountability Bureau Ordinance, he was forced by the NAB to pay Rs5 million for release.

The lawyer said Section 25 of the ordinance dealt with voluntary return and plea bargain and both legal procedures had different consequences for a suspect.

He said if a public office holder was convicted by an accountability court, he also stood disqualified from holding the said office but if he voluntarily returned the money asked by the NAB, he remained in service.

The lawyer said the provincial government had begun proceedingsagainst the petitioner from removing him from service and that for the purpose, a summary was sent to the law department by the establishment department for further proceedings.

He said there was no instance underthe said ordinance thatapublic office holder had been removed from service on basis of voluntary return.

Additional advocate general Qaisar Ali Shah appeared for the provincial government and sought time for filing the reply.

CLARIFICATION SOUGHT: Another high court bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Mussarat Hilali directed an assistant advocate general to clarify the status of 12 officers of the federal department of tourism services who have been seeking deputation allowance after their services were transferred to the provincial government in the wake of the Constitution (Eighteenth Constitution) Amendment 2010.

The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by the officers including Mohammad Arabi and 11 others, who stated that they were serving inthe federal tourism department and after the passage of the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010, the federal government transferred their services on deputation to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

Advocate Jalaluddin Khan appeared for the petitioners and contended that the federal government had issued a notification in 2011 through which the services of the petitioners were transferred on deputation as the ministry of tourism was devolved to the provinces.

He contended that after that notification the petitioners were entitled to 20 percent deputation allowance, butforthelastfouryearsthe provincial government was reluctant to pay the same allowance.

Assistant advocate general Sikandar Khan said they were federal government employees and therefore, the provincial government was not bound to pay them the allowance.

However, the bench directed him to explain the position of the provincial government and produce the relevant documents, if any, in support of his contention on Nov 18, the next date of hearing.